First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Sadly, Loung's father never returned.

It's really hard to intellectualize, and even harder to internalize the kind of cruelty war heaps upon families. It is incomprehensible when such unspeakable horrors happen to children. One thing rings loud and clear... God or the Universe, or whatever you wish to call it, has provided the human spirit with an incredible will to survive, regardless of circumstances.

This book is about the overthrow of the Cambodian Government in 1975 by Communist forces, and the capture of Phnom Penh in April of that year. It's a true story, as remembered by a small and very precocious child whose world was turned upside down. Although heartbreaking and difficult to read, you won't be able to put it down. Ms. Ung's parents would be very proud of her.

Highly Recommended.

I would never have heard of this book, until J. Yardley's review in the Washington Post indicated it might be an excellent mix of history, personal triumph, tragedy, and a view into a world mostly unknown (to me). The book delivered, moving quickly and combining personal and family details with observations of the world around the author. Enough of the story sounded true to me, based on my knowledge of the Vietnam war and its aftermath, although I am in no position to judge. Just as in any book like this, one's own experience does not necessarily mean similar experiences were widespread.
My doubts were more related to the exceptional detail in the story for a young girl twenty years later, which has been commented on elsewhere. How much could literally be true? I believe the credibility was helped by the guilt and shame that surfaced in many incidents, and I don't doubt that those particular moments could be recalled with such emotion. Who could forget the disappearance of her father, or an attempted rape, or the feeling of near starvation, or witnessing the bloody execution of a hated soldier? No rose-colored glasses here.
Perhaps a simple map would have helped me understand where some of these places were, besides Phnom Penh. I gather everything until near the end was in a small area relatively near the capital.
The modest amount of historical context was acceptable and helpful. After all, this was the memoir of a child, not a history of the Khmer Rouge. I commend the author for the power of her story and the crispness of its telling.

I was just reading that a PBS special Bill Moyers did, called "EVIL", failed to mention Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung or Pol Pot. So if, like Moyers, you hate truth, you'll hate this book. Here you will read in riveting detail about an eight-year-old girl's experiences in the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia as a victim and survivor. Moyers and his cronies on the Left don't want you to know about this book. You see, to them, all the millions murdered under communists regimes were just the victims of excesses on the road to utoptia.

This book surprised me.

Barely thirty years ago, 1/4 of Cambodia's population died under the Khmer Rouge regime. Some starved to death (most of the food produced went to China to pay for arms) and some were taken away quietly, and executed. It's funny to think that 2 million people could die in a remote place like Cambodia, and not so long ago. There's a distance to it. Before reading this book, I didn't know what had gone on in Cambodia in the 70's.

Now, it is a reality for me. Ung's images recreate the scarred, shattered childhood she lived through. They make real for a naive American the suffering of the Cambodian genocide in a way that nothing but actual experience could beat (not that I really KNOW what it was like, God no. reading a book is simply not sufficient).

This book breaks detachment and brings out the human in you. I reccommend it.

I picked up this book while travelling to Cambodia. Before my trip, I was expecting some people in Cambodia to share their experiences during the Khmer Rouge with me--I didn't get any except from a taxi driver on our last day (he gave a very good, moving and harrowing description). The majority of the people we interacted with were fairly young and did not experience the horrors of the 70's. Most of the ones that did have passed away.

So I am really glad that I read this book because it has given me a deeper understanding about what happened in Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime. The more personalized approach of "First They Killed My Father" is also really effective. I truly felt that I was with the characters during their nightmarish experiences.

In many ways, I am happy that I did not hear a lot about the Khmer Rouge during my trip. It enabled me to see Cambodia beyond its past struggles. It's a really beautiful country, filled with amazing temples (yes, the one from Tomb Raider), great food and kind people. I highly recommend visiting the country and to read "First They Killed My Father" before or after the trip--not during.

As I'm now travelling in the Southeast Asia I would want to read some books about this area. I found Ms Luong Ung's book in a bookstore in Nha Trang of Vietnam (original copy!). Once I started to read it I had to stop for some time to get some fresh air before I could finish it. The book was so greatly written but the story was so horrible, it's impossible to be unmoved by the knowledge that this is not a fiction but a real life story that happened at the time of my generation. I felt the sorrow when Ms Luong's father, and later her mother, were taken away by the Khmer Rough, I felt the happiness when she finally started a new life in America. I was born in Aug 1977 and it's somehow quite difficult to imagine that when I was well brought up in a peaceful place (in Hong Kong), then a girl and other children of my generation living very near to me would force to serve for the children army and suffer from great miseries and unspeakable carnage. This book definitely tells us how lucky we are, how precious a life can be, and how one politician's stupid idea would ruin so many lives and families. Thanks Ms Loung for writing such a great book to share her experience with all of us, it must have taken you great courage to tell us your story, which moved me so much on the human spirit.

This book was fascinating reading. Full of survival and adventure, nothing in it is dull. Full of hope. Her love for her father shines through.

This is an amazing book. It truly opened my eyes to the awful atrocities committed in Cambodia by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge during the late 1970's. "First They Killed My Father" is a true story written in the first person through the eyes of a young girl who must endure living under the oppression of the Khmer Rouge in a camp in the wild of Cambodia. The story is beautifully written with chilling and horrific events littered throughout the book, but an overall feeling of courageousness and a will to live is exhibited by the young girl and her family members. I loved this book and recommend it to everyone. It may not be a good read for those with a weak stomach, but overall Luong Ung presents an excellent piece of work.

One more autobiography of the horror that was the Khmer Rouge regime. Luong was 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge ejected her family from their home in Phnom Penh. By the age of 8, she was seperated from her family, telling the authorities that she was an orphan for fear of being executed like her father. Winding her way through the maze of survival strategies in a country where everyone was starving, Luong finds herself in a camp for strong young cambodean children, being educated to defend the very organisation that she hates for having killed her beloved pa.
With echoes of 'europa, europa', this book is one child's shocking personal account of one of the greatest tragedies of our century. It resounds like a hollow skull on the pile of dead the KhmerRouge built.

This story was moving. And haunting. I initially read this book while traveled through Cambodia, and liked it because it gave an insiders view of the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror. If you're looking for a strict history lesson, this isn't the only book you'll want. But it's well written, engaging, and provides context for what many people experiences during that terrible time in Cambodian history.